How best to compare your website traffic

Do you have a mass of data from years of business but don’t really know how to accurately compare monthly traffic? Sometimes simply looking at one month compared to the last will not give you an accurate representation of improvements.

What you need to be looking at:

Seasonal trends for your market

Marketing consistencies

Offline impact

Seasonal Trends

Now when I talk about seasonal trends I’m not simply referring to the effects of weather and public holidays. Instead you need to try to establish the trends of your individual marketplace. Some examples may be:

Traffic increases for one of our clients in February/March with customers preparing for the race season

Another client has a peak in traffic in May/June due schools looking at plans for the summer holidays

Marketing Consistencies

One of the biggest factors in increases and decreases will be extra marketing activity. For example overall traffic may decrease but if you have reduced your Adword budget or Not sent your regular ebulletin then this will not be an accurate representation of that months performance. The best way to look at improvements is by looking specifically at traffic sources and seeing the individual improvement rather than the overall figure.

Offline impact

Some offline factors can also impact on traffic to your website and it might not be immediately clear what these are. If you are just looking at the stats without comparing this to company movements and events then you may not attribute traffic rises to the correct catalyst. For example offline advertising line billboards/posters or even radio may drive direct traffic to your site. Unless you have plotted timelines for these offline strategies it will be hard to see the impact they are having.

How to best compare traffic

The best way to compare traffic is by having a clear connection between ALL of your marketing activities and the visits they are producing. Alongside this you need an understanding of the trends which will effect traffic month on month. Sometimes tracking your stats compared to previous years is a better way of seeing improvements. You just need to note down any inconsistencies in your marketing strategy in this time. So if this year you’ve grown your email lists by 10,000 and your campaign traffic has significantly improved then realise that it’s this that has been successful.

Here at The Studio 4 we pride ourselves on analysing data rather than just throwing stats at our clients. Our reports will compare to previous years and look in depth at traffic sources not just overall visits. But most importantly, we provide proactive solutions to ensure that your website keeps on improving. If you’re interested in finding out more about our SEO reporting email gemma@thestudio4.co.uk or read more here.